Phillies waste Manship's performance in loss to Mets

New York Mets' Ruben Tejada, right, slides into home on the single by David Wright with Philadelphia Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, left, reaching for the ball during the 14th inning of the Mets' 5-4 victory. (AP Photo)

Philadelphia Phillies' Ryan Howard watches his 3-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Saturday, May 31, 2014, in Philadelphia. This home run would give Howard his 1,000th career RBI. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

PHILADELPHIA — Never in the Phillies’ history, a loss-laden narrative that traverses parts of three centuries, had they ever played back-to-back 14-inning games. Never have they had to rely on so many lackluster parts to keep them in a game, either.

Yet there they were Saturday, leaning upon reliever Jeff Manship to deliver four innings of perfection out of the bullpen. Or counting on an offense that, outside of a three-run home run by Ryan Howard, has been lousy on their present homestand.

That patchwork lineup did its part, albeit sparingly. And Manship pulled his weight … until he pulled his quad.

Antonio Bastardo hung the Phillies out to dry, however, coughing up a run in his only inning of duty and allowing the New York Mets to squeeze out a 14-inning decision, 5-4, at Citizens Bank Park.

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Bastardo gave up a leadoff single to Ruben Tejada, the Mets’ eight-hole hitter who reached base in five of six trips to the plate. A sacrifice bunt by Juan Lagares moved him over before David Wright’s single into left field scored him. The throw from the Phillies’ Domonic Brown was a smidge off-line, to put it mildly.

Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said he was trying to stay away from using Bastardo. Instead, an untimely right quad strain suffered by Manship forced Sandberg’s hand.

And Sandberg didn’t want to pinch-hit John Mayberry Jr., his last available position player, for Manship in the 13th because the Phillies’ only remaining relievers were guys he had deemed unavailable — Bastardo, Mike Adams and Justin De Fratus. Sandberg said even Roberto Hernandez, who is slated to start Monday, had volunteered to pitch before the skipper would have to tap into his tapped-out relief resources.

“There was thought about it (using Mayberry), but we wouldn’t have any pitching,” Sandberg said. “Bastardo, wanted to stay away from him today. That was four days in a row for him. The other two guys were down for the day. In an emergency situation if we would’ve continued, we had Hernandez for possibly one inning, which would’ve affected his start on Monday.”

Outside of Bastardo’s miscues from the mound, the Phillies’ bullpen did all it could to keep Ryne Sandberg’s club in a game in which it did not belong. New York starter Jacob deGrom dazzled in his six-plus innings of work, keeping down the Phillies until Ryan Howard smashed a three-run opposite-field blast in the seventh inning that trimmed a four-run deficit to one.

Back to that bullpen.

The earned run allowed by Bastardo was the first permitted by the Phillies’ bullpen in 17 innings of work through the first three games of the series with New York. Saturday, Mario Hollands, Jake Diekman and Jonathan Papelbon all delivered run-free frames before Manship struck out six in his four perfect innings.

The Phillies attempted to eke another inning out of Manship’s right arm by allowing him to bat with a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the 13th inning. But Manship suffered a right quad strain trying to beat out an infield single. Manship had to leave the game, forcing the Phillies to hand the ball to Bastardo.

So much for that.

“Well, (in) this one we had numerous opportunities,” Sandberg said. “We had 14 innings. We had several chances to pull out a win, which would have been a good win for us. We had the chances, we just didn’t get it done today.”

The Phillies’ troubles extend beyond a fluky 14th-inning stint by Bastardo (3-3). Their lineup, which turned out 10 hits in 50 at-bats with 17 strikeouts Saturday against the Mets, has been abysmal lately.

Through nine games on an 11-game homestand, Sandberg’s club is hitting .206, or 67-for-325, with 89 strikeouts. Twice in this series, the Phillies have whiffed more than 15 times in a single game.

On the subject of building momentum, second baseman Chase Utley wanted none of it.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” he said gruffly, before walking away from reporters after 45 seconds of cliché-ing his way through an interview.

If any pitcher was going to provide the Phillies an opportunity to snap out of their hitting funk, you might have thought it’d be deGrom.

The right-handed deGrom was a ninth-round pick in 2010, who had made only 31 starts above Class A before being summoned by the Mets this month. And, in only his fourth career start in the bigs, deGrom dominated the Phillies.

At no point through six innings did the Phillies apply pressure to deGrom. In the seventh, Jimmy Rollins got to deGrom by poking a single up the middle to draw within 10 hits of matching Mike Schmidt’s club record, and then Utley followed with a walk.

Just like that, the Phillies had a runner in scoring position for the first time. Howard made things interesting, turning deGrom’s gem into a tight ballgame when he sent a 1-1 pitch to the opposite field for a three-run home run.

Brown singled in the game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth inning to make it 4-all and extend what would end up being a 5-hour, 33-minute game that concluded in twilight.